ICYMI: Guadagno promotes women-owned business at Cape May County Chamber
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2017
CONTACT: Guadagno For Governor
rickyd@kimfornj.com
Guadagno promotes women-owned business at Cape May County Chamber conference
By Claire Lowe
Press of Atlantic City

OCEAN CITY — Despite growth in women-owned businesses in the past decade, men still outnumber them 2-1.

“We are doing something wrong,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who spoke at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce’s 12th annual Women in Business Conference Thursday at The Flanders hotel.

“Why do you have to have a women-in-business conference at all? Don’t you long for the days when we (will) outnumber the men 2-1?” Guadagno asked.

Guadagno, 57, is a mother of three sons ages 16 to 24 and is a lawyer, former county sheriff and the highest-ranking female politician in the state.

She has known some in the room full of women a long time. She talked about her sons’ accomplishments and flaws, telling jokes and moving around the room. She spoke about her home life.

“I take the trash out. I do the laundry. I don’t know who you think does it,” she quipped. “We’re all working women here in some way or another.”

Guadagno’s personal journey took her from law student to Manhattan lawyer to lieutenant governor. In between, she decided to get a job in public service, during which she prosecuted organized crime, racketeering and public-corruption cases.

She took a few years off to focus on her children before running for public office.

“I swore I was going to be a soccer mom for the rest of my life. And then I got involved in my town,” she said. “In 2005, they turned the bus route around on my kids, and my kids had to cross a busy street by themselves. Now, is there anything more worth fighting for than your children?”

She ran for Monmouth Beach commissioner and won. Two years later, she was elected sheriff in Monmouth County, before being tapped by Chris Christie to be his lieutenant governor.

“It was a risk, and I took the risk because I had nothing to lose,” Guadagno said.

She said she is proud of her work during two terms in state office to bring down the unemployment rate, expand business development and promote tourism.

Chamber President Vicki Clark called Thursday’s turnout the largest in the conference’s history. The conference, she said, is an opportunity to focus on issues unique to women, not the differences between men and women.

“Most women are caring for someone other than themselves,” Clark said. “And there are some unique aspects of that when we talk about what’s expected of women and what’s expected of men in traditional roles, which are changing.”

Clark said that, in embracing change, the chamber hopes to show women in Cape May County the opportunities available for professional growth.

‘I think sometimes we put barriers up that are in our minds and not necessarily a reality,’ Vicky Clark, right, Cape May County

Chamber of Commerce president, says Thursday about women owning businesses. She walks with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. , who was keynote speaker Thursday at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Women in Business conference in Ocean City.

“It’s a difficult path living in Cape May County,” she said, due to its lack of high-paying, year-round jobs.

Clark agreed women have more to lose when they take risks in business, but she said she wasn’t sure whether that was an ingrained perception or reality.

“I think sometimes we put barriers up that are in our minds and not necessarily a reality,” she said.

She said hearing from Guadagno was energizing.

“She has leveraged her education and her desire to work into a career that she has had to balance with the demands of having a home life and being a parent and being a wife. And all of us can identify with that,” Clark said. “That’s a refreshing thing that we all need to hear at some point in time, that we’re all in this together, and we need to lift each other up.”